Ellen: Helene Campbell Organ Donation, Justin Bieber & Hunger Games

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Ellen: Helene Campbell Organ Donation

“As you know, we get tons of letters and videos everyday,” Ellen said to introduce the video sent to her by Helene Campbell. Helene said she was 20 years old, living in Toronto. “I’m waiting for a call for a transplant,” she said.

She said she was hoping that Ellen would air her video “to help raise awareness for organ donation and blood donation.”

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“You like to touch causes that people don’t like to talk about,” she said.

Ellen: Justin Bieber Organ Donor Tweet

Helene Campbell tells Ellen that she has idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and even got Justin Bieber to tweet about the importance of organ donation. (Joe Seer / Shutterstock.com)

Helene said that she and her friend tried to raise awareness by tweeting pop superstar Justin Bieber to see if he would tweet about organ donation. Amazingly enough, it worked! In response to his tweet, a lot of people registered to be organ donors.

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“If that was only done by a tweet, imagine if you talked about it for two minutes,” Helene said.

“Why not give some one else a second chance?” she asked. “It’s so amazing that you can give the gift of life.”

Ellen: Helene Campbell Skype

Ellen said she had a surprise for Helene, who was waiting on Skype.

“She thinks she’s waiting to Skype with a producer,” she said. Ellen put Helene‘s Skype feed on the screen and then began video-chatting with her.

Helene was wearing a oxygen tube under her nose and she asked her mother to turn up the oxygen feed to the hose. “Please turn up her oxygen right now,” Ellen joked.

“So listen, you’re an amazing amazing young woman. You’re 20 years old and you’re doing something amazing and brave,” Ellen said. “What is that you have exactly?”

“I have idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis,” Helene said. “It’s a hardening of the lungs, so I’ve lost the elasticity.”

“I get a lot of people who want to meet me,” Ellen said. She said that Helene was different because she sent the video only to spread awareness about the importance of organ donation, not for any other personal agenda.

“I am an organ donor and I have been for a long time,” Ellen said. “I believe in that.”

Ellen: Helene Campbell Hunger Games

Ellen said she knew that Helene was a big fan of The Hunger Games so she bought Helene tickets to the Toronto premiere of the film adaptation.

“I can’t wait for you to have your transplant,” Ellen said to Helene. “As soon as you do, you and your mom, we’re going to fly you out to the show. We can hang out backstage and we’re going to dance together!”